titaniasummer

I was amused to receive this mail today. Especially since one of their promised outcomes is getting into a PhD program in universities like Minnesota with a multi-year fellowship offer. Interestingly, I AM ALREADY going to Minnesota this Fall for for a PhD with a multi-year fellowship. While NYU is a great school, I've always believed that some really fantastic schools have these cashcow masters programs to attract lots of hopeful students who just want the name of a particular university on their records and/or feel thrilled to live in a city like New York. I'd have been happy to consider a PhD offer from NYU had I made the cut but the thought of paying for a masters is appalling to me. I earned my first masters from a modest urban university in India while I was working in journalism and the total amount of money I could afford to spend on my undergraduate and graduate education was Rs. 13000 ($260) thanks to my extremely lower-middle-class background. I am already studying in London for a second masters on an international scholarship and thats on the file that the Dean's office so carefully evaluated and sent this mail to me after reading. I wrote back to them very politely saying that if I thought an unfunded third masters would significantly improve the quality of my doctoral work, I'd have been honoured to be considered for their program. I would strongly suggest you guys give this a miss. If you have $32,000 dollars you are really dying to spend, why don't you just buy yourself a refurbished Porsche and scope around for a PhD program next year instead

I wrote to Mitchell, I don't want to call him from London; its an unnecessary expense for me. I'm pretty sure those who are in have been informed already, the reason I want to be clear about things is that I'm expecting a call from my Minnesota POI and just want to tell her clearly where I stand with other offers and potentially accept hers. I am also sorry if I have contributed to the misunderstanding in any way!

Congrats on Berkeley! I honestly think it's a better dept for South Asian studies than Columbia, so this is excellent for you. Did you get in for an MA or a PhD?

Sigh, I'm really bored of waiting for MEALAC now. I'm mailing them for a decision because Minnesota has offered me their Graduate Fellowship and will be calling me this week to chat. It's pointless for them to wait so long to reject/waitlist people. Someone on the forum seemed to have mailed them and got a negative response, I am following suit. Haha, I forgot to write Dear Ms. Whatshername. The mail went as Dear <blank>

Hello, Nice to meet you! What will you be studying? I think I will be attending Minnesota starting Fall 2010, for a PhD in Asian Languages and Literatures. I'm originally from Bombay, India but I'm currently doing my second masters in London. I'm really apprehensive about the weather in Minneapolis but would love to know more about the city, particularly things to see/do and what sort of housing budget I can look at.

I'm actually dreading getting their rejection. My week has already been ruined by Chicago.

Washington is not promising me funding, so well. Minnesota is my most likely option currently, they've offered me a solid and safe package. What's your area of work FDT?

Chicago SALC rejection reached London today Ironically, at the same time as UWashington ALL acceptance.

Wow, I was told specifically that I will know by Mid-March. So I guess I can safely assume I'm out. Could you share your profile in any case?

I wrote to Columbia and received a reply from the MEALAC graduate advisor saying decisions will be out by mid-March.

SOAS is great actually. My Hindi professor is very reputed in her field, Dr. Orsini. Her mere endorsement has got me three absurdly early positive decisions from Purdue, Minnesota and Washington. I think doing a Masters before applying is always a good idea, some of the other applicants have said this as well. My Masters at SOAS has entirely broadened and shaped my perspective. I also think its fairly rare for Indians from India to want to study South Asia even in India, let alone abroad. I don't understand why so many Indians take their automatic native proficiency with 3-5 languages for granted. In India, there is this conception of an educational pyramid that places Engineering and Business Management at the pinnacle with regional literatures way down at the bottom. It's really a pity that I've had to come to SOAS to find the right tutelage but I'm not complaining! SOAS is really excellent.

I was turned down by Berkeley too, keep your chin up! UT Austin actually told me that I'd be under-qualified for their PhD because my Indian and British Masters (both of them!) were not 'up to American standards', which is just extremely odd. Good luck for MEALAC.

You know what sucks immensely about MEALAC? They probably send out acceptances by feb end and rejections in April!! And judging by the gradcafe results, barely anyone gets in anyway. To top this, hoardes of people get into Columbia for unfunded masters and look down upon PhD rejects. Like the process is comparable! Whew. Sorry for the rant.

Our languages are the same! *avoids competitive squint* I'm currently working on my second Masters at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London where I am a Felix Scholar (a fellowship given to Indian graduates). My background is in literature and my proposed research has to do with contemporary retellings of the Mahabharata in Hindi Drama in the post 1947 period. I've been accepted into Minnesota and Washington for PhDs so far and I'm waiting for decisions from SALC and MEALAC. Any idea on the timeline one can expect? Have you been in touch with faculty members?

Yup. I have. Not sure about it though. Their acceptance rate according to the Petersons site is 48%. Sounds absurdly untrue. However, I have been rejected by Berkeley with a kind personal email from my POI, which makes me doubtful of my chances at either UChicago or Columbia. I think I'll choose Minnesota over Washington because of a better fellowship offer. How is it going for you kandeya? What is your research interest/background?

I think that means all the results are out only rejections now

Hello! Someone seems to have got an acceptance from NYU on 11 Feb. I'm guessing this means it's nail-biting-result-week now. As for my stats, I'm more of an (South) Asian Literature person than a Comp Lit one. I'm a native speaker of Hindi and Bengali, I also received my BA and MA from Indian Universities. I worked for a few years as a journalist at a major Indian daily and worked in an NGO that works towards bettering primary education in rural India before I moved to London on an International fellowship to read for a second masters in Comparative Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies. I have a reading knowledge of French and a few other Indian languages. I have applied for comp lit programs at NYU, UPenn, UCSB and Purdue and for Asian Studies at a few others. Currently, I have been turned down by the California schools but I've been accepted with fellowships into the more modest programs on my list, i.e. Purdue for comp lit and UWashington and UMinnesota for Asian Literatures. I am not too hopeful of getting into the rest of my Comp Lit options, but I do hope for an offer or two from the remaining South Asian studies departments. Good luck to everyone else here!

I'm also waiting for a couple of results still, like Columbia MEALAC and UChicago but I doubt they will work out either. I've also applied to a few places for Comp Lit, one of whom (Purdue) has accepted me. But my languages are Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit and most Comp Lit schools are just eurocentric, so I'm not expecting any more. Also, please don't take my word on the funding by May thing, it may only be for South Asian Studies. I am also speculating about the one person per subject area thing to make myself feel good As for the reputation of UW, I have heard they're very very good. I am in School of Oriental and African Studies London where I take a class with a lot of students doing an MA in Chinese or Japanese literature and they were all quite excited when I told them of my acceptance. I also love the idea of living in Seattle but yeah, the funding thing, at least for my area seems a bit out of funk. Have you got an official acceptance letter/ email yet? Because I've just exchanged a couple of mails with the counsellor of the department, who told me about my acceptance and funding prospects. Also, I am really hoping that getting into UW was significantly tough, so I stand a chance at my other programs. I'm sure you feel the same way

Hello! Maybe we'll end up there together in UW! I'll be studying South Asian Literature. The funding situation does seem a bit weird, the graduate counsellor also asked me to apply for a TA position and they said they'll only know the results by May. That would be unfortunate, because I've got two fellowship offers from UMinn and Purdue so far, which are pressuring me for responses by or even before April 15. I also get the feeling that they've taken one person for each field this year, i.e. Japanese, South Asian, Chinese and Korean.

I'm talking about South and Southeast Asian Studies at Berkeley, mine would be a PhD.

From what I understand, Berkeley's decision have been made. I have been in contact with the department chair for quite a while now, so she told me when I was turned down and why. She also said that she wants to continue to informally help me in my future graduate work and congratulated me for getting into UMinnesota and UWashington, calling it the "best possible thing to happen" (!) They may not have sent out formal mails yet because I haven't got a formal rejection, just a mail from my POI.

Hello! I'm a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London and I've applied to Berkeley, UWashington, UMinnesota, Columbia MEALAC and UChicago this year for a PhD. So far I have offers from Minnesota and UW and a sugarcoated personal rejection from my POI at Berkeley (but its still a no, sigh). I work in Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit, and have a BA and MA in English Literature from Indian universities. I'm working on my second Masters at SOAS, United Kingdom on an international fellowship. No publications and terrible GRE scores Would anyone else mind sharing stats?